Learning from Nature with Mark Coleman

04.24.2023 - By Rick Hanson, Ph.D., Forrest Hanson Play

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Buddhist teacher Mark Coleman joins Forrest and Dr. Rick to share how we can learn from nature and incorporate it into our practice. Mark shares his insights and experiences from years of leading wilderness retreats, and explains how reconnecting with the natural world can deepen mindfulness and enhance our well-being. You’ll learn specific meditative practices, how to bring the outside inside, the power of our “wild” aspects, and how we can move from being in nature to simply being nature.

About our Guest: Mark Coleman is a senior meditation teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in northern California, and the founder of Awake in the Wild, an organization that runs programs focused on immersing people in the natural world. He’s also the author of four books, including From Suffering to Peace: The True Promise of Mindfulness and his newest book A Field Guide to Nature Meditation: 52 Mindfulness Practices for Joy, Wisdom and Wonder.

Watch the Episode: Prefer watching video? You can watch this episode on YouTube.

Key Topics:

0:00: Introduction

1:40: What drew Mark to practice in nature

5:15: Being drawn outward by meditation

9:20: Access to nature, and “bougie-fication”

15:15: Novelty, acclimation, and quieting the “self”

20:25: The brutal side of nature, and uncertainty

25:05: Reciprocity and relationship

28:05: From appreciating nature to being nature

30:15: Searching for a place vs. searching for a feeling

35:50: What meditating in nature looks like in practice

41:40: Bringing the benefits of practice to the mundane

45:05: “A bunch of tame monkeys”

49:15: Recap

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